uneven ground || lee mark

chapter 12

mark hastily walked back to his dorm, shaking his head in disappointment.

'wow, i didn't know it was even possible to fuck something up like this.'

the gun didn't just backfire — it shot everything in sight, except what it was supposed to.

he also found it pretty comical how ellie's friend had tried to lie to him.

she seemed really convinced that he wasn't noticing the glances she would constantly send towards the right side of the room — the side mark couldn't fully see.

but he wasn't dumb, he knew how the dorms were furnished.

it just made him sad to think that ellie was so sick of him that she didn't even want him to know she was there.

although at least that way, he got to indirectly tell her what he wanted to get off his chest in person.

mark sure hoped that she had been listening, or else it would've been really awkward for dahye to have listened through his monologuew.

i mean, it was pretty awkward like this already, but imagine if ellie had not been there.

mark eventually reached his dorm, sighing as he realised that he was about to spend another night alone with his thoughts.

those were the downsides of having a solo-dorm.

that, of course, did not mean that there weren't any perks to it. mark shivered at the thought of having to share a dorm with someone like chenle.

god, how much of a mess that boy could make if he really wanted to... mark felt bad for jisung sometimes.

he knew very well that the younger boy was the one keeping their dorm as clean as he could — which sadly was not quite what mark would call tidy either.

but how could he blame them when they were just a pair of teenage boys living without their parents?

he got out of the shower and walked over to his white dresser, placing all of the bracelets he had taken off before his shower in a little, wooden box, where he kept his collection.

his eyes fell on one specific bracelet that he hadn't worn in quite a while.

it wasn't anything special, and it wasn't of any sentimental value to him either.

consisting of a turquoise string with three different seashells attached to it, the braclet felt extremely light in his hand.

a small smile crept onto his face.

he remembered exactly where he bought it.

it had been on that beach trip in his second year — the trip where ellie first caught his eye.

'fucking hell, i should really put an end to this.'

he quickly put the bracelet back into the box and slammed the wooden lid shut.

disappointed in himself, mark shook his head.

'i have to.'

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"...and what are you going to do about it?"

donghyuck hesitantly asked his friend. and it wouldn't take a genius to know that that wasn't necessarily something to tell someone who just poured their heart out to you.

especially not if that person came to you for advice.

"i don't fucking know! that's why i'm here."

mark groaned. although he was aware that donghyuck was probably the most unserious one out of all of his friends, he also knew how rational and supportive he could be when the situation was more severe.

but it didn't seem like he was taking mark very seriously at the moment.

"dude, chill out. you have a crush on the girl, so what? everyone gets crushes!"

mark shot him a fiery glare.

"yeah, well, you don't see anyone else's crushes doing the most ridiculous things just to avoid them, do you? she hates me, and even though i want to, i can't seem to accept that."

it looked like that caught donghyuck of guard, because you could physically see how hard he was thinking of an answer.

he was just very surprised at his friend's words.

since he had fully expected mark to deny having a crush on that girl, hearing him openly admit it (if you can call alone in the younger boy's dorm, where no one else could possibly hear them 'openly') left him baffled.

"and you came to... me? so i can help you fix your love life?"

donghyuck let out a dry laugh as he said that.

"my man, i can't even handle my own problems, how am i supposed to solve yours?"

mark's previously rather stern look softened a little.

while other people might not notice anything, he could clearly hear the pained undertone in his friends words.

after all, he always proudly claimed to be the one who knew lee donghyuck best.

"... so bali didn't go too well?" he murmured the question that had been lingering on his mind for weeks, yet had somehow gotten lost in his own unnecessary worries.

for context: donghyuck had spent literal months convincing his parents to spent at least a small part of his summer holidays on bali — all just because he heard the girl he had been chasing after for years would be there.

everyone was pretty impressed by the fact that he had actually been able to change his parents' minds —that were set on a trip to italy— and booked a whole week stay on the island.

but it didn't seem like it was quite worth the effort.

donghyuck shrugged.

"she was there with her cousins. kept turning around and walking in the opposite direction whenever she saw me."

mark kept quiet, feeling a little bad for bothering his friend with his childish whining when he wasn't doing very good himself.

"the only time i actually got to talk to her was when my sister made friends with one of the cousins and dragged me over to play volleyball with them. and she acted like she was meeting me for the first time."

now that was unexpected. mark was stunned to say the least.

that didn't sound like seon-ok at all.

but then again, he wasn't sure he knew the girl enough to decide that.

so he just rubbed the younger boy's back in a soothing manner, sighing in the process.

"i guess we're both just helpless."

donghyuck nodded slowly.

"i guess we are."

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i can't believe it's been almost half a year since the last update.

i remember swearing to myself that i would never be one of those authors to go on indefinite hiatuses, but look at me.

it does make me pretty sad that i seem to have lost quite a big part of my audience, but i can grow that back, and maybe (hopefully) even get in contact with some of my day-ones again.

either way, love you guys a lot 🫶